Celeste Walton

I teach seventh grade at Kennedy Middle School in Aiken, South
Carolina. I teach on a block schedule. The subjects I teach are
literature and language arts.

Lesson Title: Poets and Their Lives

The lesson that I am presenting on this web page is a lesson that
presents background information on several different poets with links
to some of their poems and biographies.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Emily Dickinson helped revolutionize the writing of poetry. Being
a poet was her lifelong goal. Her education at Amherst Academy and
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary served her well in her pursuit.
Frequently, poems published in newspapers were the inspiration for
her work, while her verse form came from the iambic meter of church
hymns. When she died, she had written about 1,175 poems, but only
seven had been published-anonymously. She was a private person.Her
poetry testifies to the beauty she saw in life. Her themes evolved
around immortality, nature, the inner self, beauty, love, and death.
Dickinson was a poet several decades ahead of her time. Only after
her death did she achieve fame.